Fishing Michigan

I know I had brought this up before, and since its so late in the walleye season, I just might do it again next spring, but here are some pics.  Told my Unc about the crank idea, and he said he just read about guys on Saginaw Bay using spoons for flashers, hated to tell him that I have been using them on and off for a few years now down on Erie.  He thought he might have sprung a new idea on me I think.

Also, for those who haven’t tried this trick yet, two helpful hints.  Its hard to run these without spooking fish if you plan on running a diver or inline weight in front of the flasher and then your choice of bait; spoon or harness.  If you have a couple of reels spooled with lead core, then good choice with this combination.  If you don’t have any spooled up, no worries, go and get yourself a snapweight kit and try the 50/50 system.  If your kit doesn’t have dive charts, look into a Precision Trolling Guide to get the info you need.

These are the spoons I run.  Also there are some stores like Jann’s  (Jann’s Netcraft) that will offer spoon kits.  Which means there are spoons, and you add the split rings, good quality snap n swivel,  then you have some fairly reasonably priced flashers.

One of the bonuses of getting away from the crowds is the quiet time that one can have to himself.  At the cabin one night, I sat up  with some loose leaf paper and a pen and started brainstorming up new ideas that I could apply to trolling for walleye and giving some old ideas or concepts a new twist.  I had the Precision Trolling Guide out and was just flipping through the pages and came to the section that listed the many baits produced by Storm (before Rapala purchase).  If there was one bait that Storm ever produced that was a dud in my book, it was the Lightnin’ Shad.  I realize that some folks have probably caught fish on these, but I am just not one of them.  I had sevaral of the largest baits produced, some I picked up when they first came out, some when I found them for two bucks at Big Lots a couple of years back.

It was at that point my little light bulb popped on, and I came up with a new application for these baits.  I wanted a diver, that could get down deeper with less line let out that a disc or jet.  Yet, I wanted to be able to long line them back behind the boat as another trolling option.  So I get home, start removing treble and split ring from the belly, kept the split ring on the tail and removed the treble back there.  Now all I have to do is find some good ball bearing snap n swivels for the tail split ring.  Then its simple, run my leader back for a spoon or attach a harness.

Take a look at the samples that I took pics of earlier.  Big deep diving bill, large rattles and a prism flash with its’  tight wobble in the water.  The qualities are deep diving,  its’ got flash, wide body profile  and makes a lot of noise.  Its got everything and more than any diver available on the market has today.  AND, you may have some already in your tackle box ready for some tweaking,  and trolling behind your boat.

I put this in the Lure Making category, but like many of the other ideas I present, its more of a customizing thing.  Like many of the blade type baits that I use for trolling; spoons and spinners, salmon spoons can be dressed up to help increase your salmon and trout catches during the dog days of August and September.  The time to hit these monster fish is now, before they begin running into the rivers.

WTP offers several types and styles of lure tape that the salmon anglers can apply to their spoons.  You can also touch up your favorite type of flasher, as well.  One of the most popular colors, really isn’t a color at all, but glow tape in a variety of cuts is by far one of the most productive additions you can make.  If glow rocks for salmonoids, then glow in a combination with green simply rules.  It has been by far one they most consistent combinations over the years in spoons, flies and even the flashers.

WTP already offers premade “spoon cuts“.  No more messing and trying to match your cuts to the curve of the spoon.  Its ready to go for application right out of the package.

Dress up the spoons with a well placed flat or 3-D eye adhesive.  That extra flash of color often seems to trigger fish when the bite slows down.

Ladderback strips can be applied to any of the spoons you already own,  and with the 7″ in strips you should be able to get two spoons done for each strip.  Add some flash or a glow pattern to your favorite color patters on the spoons.  Often a contrasting color works well with the existing blade/spoon.

If you remember how I dressed up some of the walleye blades, you will recognize many of these ideas.  THEY ARE NOT LIMITED TO ONE SPECIES OF FISH, nor are they limited to certain seasons.  There is nothing like touching up one of your favorite spoons to increase your catch rates.  Also try stripping off the paint of old spoons that have been beat up, or unproductive and create your own patterns with the tape.  Just read some reports, purchase the colors working the best, and start creating.

Next up for a tape project will be on ice fishing lures probably in November or December as I gear up for another tournament run on the ice.  Will  have some information the new tourney organization, as well as products in October when I have another seminar with the Huron Valley Sportfishing Club in Trenton.

You have got to love the Internet, that and dumb luck!

While at the boat and fishing show this spring at the fairgrounds, I had some extra cash burning a hole in my pocket. So I made my rounds walking through the vendor booths.  Some might remember these blades that I picked up while shopping from an earlier blog.

These blades came from DB Fishing, the owner being Daren Bernhardt.  I was given a card after my purchase and some good conversation.  I have visited the site a few times since then, but never was able to find those blades.  www.dbfishing.com       What I did find was a great selection of beads, some really nice spoons for walleye trolling,  and a few areas that were still under construction.  My pet peeve are websites under construction.  But the prices on DB’s site are well worth the minor inconveniences.

To find those blades, I sent an email, and this was reply sent within an day’s time.

If you want to order these blades, the process is a bit tedious, but well worth it.  Use the phone number on the charts.  1st pic is Chart #1 and so forth.  Example would be Chart #1, row #3, 4th one over to the right.  Until they get loaded up to the website,  this is what you have to do to get these really nice looking blades.  Spoons and beads are available online, but if you are calling for the blades, you might as well make a list and order everything over the phone.  You will like what you see, not bad for a guy who used to work for someone else’s mom and pop bait shop on Lake St. Clair.

Have you ever come up with an idea, and wonder if anyone else has already?

Thought for the day is this:

     Why not tie a weapon rig, but instead of a blade and harness, use a trolling spoon.  You would cast it out like a weapon, let it sink like a weapon, and retrieve it a bit faster than a weapon.  Use a snap n swivel at the opposite end of the weight,  and attach your favorite Stinger or Streak. 

Just one more idea to try the next I go out.

Jann’s Netcraft  has been around separately or since the two names merged since 1941.  They claim to be the largest supplier of fishing tackle components anywhere.  If you just walked into their showroom south of Toledo off of US-23, you would be hard pressed to believe it.  Once you get their catalog, or take a gander at their website and it all becomes a LOT more believable.

These guys have stuff, and lots of good stuff.  As the name suggests,  they have materials to make your own fishing and landing nets at home.  Heck with crochet, now that’s a hobby to have.

They have everything to make your own plastics.  From the molds, plastic formula down to the most popular colors.  From spring crappie fishing to drop-shotting for bass, they have you covered.

My favorite item(s) have to do with making up my crawler harnesses.  Beads, hooks, clevises and line.  I can get blades anywhere; Matthew’s, Frank’s and local Michigan craftsmen are great sources.  Its hard to beat the prices from Jann’s though on beads.  Some of my favorite colors are available there.

Best way to go, visit the website        www.jannsnetcraft.com       and  make a list.  The showroom is small, but the back section of the building is full of stock.  Hand off the list, walk around, while the guys fill up a cart or basket for you.  Get a catalog while in the store and take it home with you.

Some of the big salmon flasher and dodger type companies have been marketing a 6″ flasher that could be used for walleye fishing.  They might work, but to be honest I have never used one before.  That said, I have been using flashers/attractors in one form or another for a long time in  fishing for walleye.

My first attempt was a “double” harness of sorts.  I would take a 9 foot length of line and and tie a single hook snell at the end.  Add my beads and blades and then take the line and snell two more hooks roughly four foot from there.  Again, I added my beads and blade and then double looped my line at the end.  It worked pretty good, almost too well in fact.  A cardinal rule is to check your line on the harnesses after every fish,  I would get a lot of hits on the two hook section, and it rarely nicked the line, but when  a double hit would happen, then I would get the nicks.  Would have to scrap that harness and break out another one.

My second “homemade” flasher is a bit more conventional and I won’t call it copied, but there are a lot of folks using these.  Sometimes you come up with an idea, and somewhere a hundred miles away someone else who contemplates walleye fishing as much as  you do from every angle comes up with the same ideas.  This happened with the spoon concept, and to be honest I don’t know who came up with it first, but it does work.  You connect your spoon to a 4 or 5 foot lead, with the treble hook removed, take a 3 or 4 foot harness and attach to the rear of the spoon. I do think one difference between the different methods of doing this is in that I use a 3 and 4 inch spoon, while the others I have seen use the 2+ inch model walleye spoons.  A strong belief that I have when it comes to walleye fishing is to the use the biggest items I can get a way with.  It also applies to line and lures.

The last type of flasher that I have been using for about the past five years has been these things from Mack’s Lures called “Hot Wings”.  I didn’t come up with this on my own, and give full credit to a husband and wife walleye fishing team that I met while working seminars.  Bill and Bernadine Ayers are truly the nicest two people you could hope to meet and are on Mack’s Lures Pro Staff.  Here is a pic of the couple, and again, the best thing I can say about them, they are good people.

The unique thing about the “Hot Wings” themselves, is that there are two sets of wings.  They actually spin in separate directions creating quite a stir in the water.

Rig them the same way as what I did with the spoons, and you will catch fish, good luck.

The bottom bouncers I ordered showed up today via UPS.  One dozen, unpainted….inexpensive, and had the twist eye on top just how I like it.

You really don’t have to paint them, lots of folks don’t.  I do,  and in all honesty its for something to tinker with more than anything else.  If you do decide to go that route, it is best to give them a white primer coat.

Once that was done with 2 coats, where they had dried enough, and were ready for the next coat.  I did three in a forest green, three in black, 3 with cherry red, and the last three got the traditional black coat.  It really doesn’t matter what type of paint you use.  These were done with spray cans, and I have done them up with jig paint before.  I prefer the sprays just because they can take up a lot of jig paint, and it saves on the coast.  If you want them to glow though, go with the jig paint.  I kind of rushed this job, in order to have pics ready for this piece, so I have some white popping through, if it doesn’t rain tomorrow, they get another coat or two.

Its hard to find a mold for 4 oz BB’s, so getting the unpainted saves a lil’ money, plus you have the fun of painting them yourself, to your own specs.

When I wrote this up last night, I forgot to include WTP’s new updated website with it’s store.  You can go to www.wtp-inc.com and click the “shop now”  option.

There are some of the ” ladderback ” cutouts that I used for the earlier piece, and even if you aren’t just walleye fishing, they can of course be used on your favorite salmon spoons.  Also, out for the salmon fisherman are the ” flasher cuts“.  These pre-cut pieces are perfect for the dodgers and flodgers.

I know I mentioned the 3-D molded eyes   yesterday.  These are really versatile.  Not only do I put them on some of the colorado blades I use,  but they work really well touching up some of my better walleye, pike and muskie  crankbaits.  They can add an life-like appearance to just about any bait.

That should help anyone that is interested.  You can also find many of their products down the road in Dundee, up at the walleye store, Frank’s Great Outdoors,  D&R Sports out in K-zoo, and many, many tackle shops along Michigan’s west coast that cater to the salmon fisherman.

This really isn’t anything new for some, but for some others might get something out of it.  For years guys have been putting Witch Tape (WTP) on their salmon spoons, but its also a great way to touch up some of your favorite walleye blades.

These deep cup #5 colorado blades are from Northland, and I used a salmon favorite to spruce them up, the ladderback tape pattern.  I used chartruse/green which is the same color as the tape used on the Swedish Pimple that works so well during the ice season.  I have also barely touched them up by simply putting on a 3-D molded eye on the blades.

These are #3 colorado blades with premium copper and gold finishes.  Some are the same green/chartruse as the ladderbacks, some crushed ice glow, orange and green,  and really popular here on Erie is the purple scale.  I cut the curve into the tape, then place on the blade and trim around the edges.

Lastily are the Smile Blades from Mack’s Lures.  If you haven’t tried these yet, they really are worth having in your arsenal.  Bar none, they are the most effective blades I have found for trolling at slower speeds.  They claim to spin at 1/4 of a mph,  its hard to tell unless the boat is barely moving on a drift.  Very effective while trying to stay in a strike zone as long as possible.  The Witch Tape comes in handy when the original tape on the blades begin to peel or become discolored.  I used the crushed ice green and orange on these, with the standard purple mirror in the back that comes from the factory.  Just tape a retangular piece over the blade and trim.